Happy Birthday

Today my little sister is 24. Which seems, since I'm only a little older than her myself, to be really old. Because you can fit a lot into 24 years, which I know since I am the older and ehem, supposedly wiser, one.

When she was little, I remember that she used to cry at everything. And I do mean everything. Which I probably remember since I was probably the one making her cry at least half the time...it wasn't that I was a mean little kid, it was seriously just that she cried easily. See, look, she's bawling her head off and I'm not doing anything to her!

After 24 years, there is a lot to know about a person - especially one that you lived with for the majority of those years. She loved barbies. She used to bite me. She loved the color pink. She was messy. She slept late. When we were in middle school we really wanted to share a room and my parents wouldn't let us.

It was after this that I think how different we were started to become apparent. We went to different schools. I, the perpetual nerd, was slightly embarrassing to my ever and always cool younger sister. Then, I moved away to go to college - and never moved back. Then I graduated and took a job that required me to work holidays instead of traveling back to see my family. And you know how it goes...days turn to weeks, and the weeks quickly turn to years. And life happens.

And today she turns 24. She's still messy (while I am a total organization freak), she sleeps late (and I am up by sunrise), she goes out to party until late at night (and this is my exception rather than my rule), she is the height of fashion (and I am just a few measures away from the big hair of the 80s), she teaches first grade (and my degree is in nursing).

We might be total opposites, but she is my sister and I love her. So happy birthday, Tess, I hope that the coming year is filled with enough love, happiness, and success to make it everything you want it to be. I love you!